start

Share on Facebook

Lcchang

#271951 Mon, 25 Sep 06 09:14 AM

I know perfect tense has been discussed for thousand times, but please look at the following sentences.

1. The game started before I got to the stadium.

2. The game had started before I got to the stadium.

Sentence one talks about a regular truth and sentence 2 focuses on the order of the things happened. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Lcchang

Joined on Mon, Feb 27 2006

Northern Taiwan

Contributing Member (1,005)

Life will never end.

Tenses

Mister Micawber

#271986 Mon, 25 Sep 06 11:59 AM

I don't see them with that difference, LC (though I am not sure what you mean by 'regular truth'). For me, number 2 anchors the beginning of the game more firmly and slightly farther in the past; normally I don't think I would bother to use it.

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (21,223)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Numbers

Marius Hancu

#271993 Mon, 25 Sep 06 12:59 PM

2 is more rigorous in defining the time sequence.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Yoong Liat

#272037 Mon, 25 Sep 06 03:56 PM

1. The game started before I got to the stadium.

2. The game had started before I got to the stadium.

Sentence one talks about a regular truth and sentence 2 focuses on the order of the things happened. Please correct me if I am wrong.

You're right. The word 'had' in sentence 2 emphasises that the game started first before your arrival at the stadium. Sentence 1 states what happened with no emphasis on the start of the game.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,006)

Yoong Liat

Lcchang

#272143 Mon, 25 Sep 06 08:37 PM

Mister Micawber wrote:

I don't see them with that difference, LC (though I am not sure what you mean by 'regular truth'). For me, number 2 anchors the beginning of the game more firmly and slightly farther in the past; normally I don't think I would bother to use it.

Regular truth...I just made it up myself. [:-D]

Lcchang

Numbers